Daphne Lawless will present on Ecosocialism at our upcoming conference, Fightback 2013.

It seems to be common sense that socialism and green politics go together. “Green is red”, wrote English socialist Paul McGarr more than ten years ago. On the other side of the aisle, the Right often refer to the Green Party as “watermelons” (that is, red on the inside – secretly socialist). The Green Parties, for their turn, like to deny this connection, often declaring themselves “neither left nor right but out in front”. And many Marxists don’t want to have anything to do with this supposedly privileged middle-class movement for that very reason.

However, ecosocialism is – in brief – the idea that you can’t have green politics without red politics. That is: that you can’t have an environmentally sustainable society under capitalism and its almight profit motives. And you can’t have a socialist society which ignores ecological sustainability and quality of life in favour of producing mass quantities of consumer goods. I want to argue that, while ecosocialism has been for the last 25 years or so “the wave of the future”, it is now very much the wave of the present.

Marx and Ecology

Ecosocialism is the descendant of a Marxism which comes from “bottom up” – a Marxism which takes as its start and end point the lived experience of human beings on this planet. Marxism, as a philosophy which seeks to liberate humanity from alienation, is most widely known as the theory of how capitalism alienates the working class from the produce of their labour. But Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels also discussed how it alienates human beings from nature.

The American socialist writer John Bellamy Foster has shown that Marx’s early writings are very clear that capitalism creates a “metabolic rift” between social systems and ecological systems. Through the town-country division of labour, natural resources, including the plant and animal kingdoms, waterways and space itself, become seen as inert objects waiting to be transformed into goods for profit. And of course this applied also to the workers themselves – the worker is not valued for her or his humanity, but only as a source of potential profit for the boss. Capitalism is a system of exploitation of all of nature – including people.

The increasing push for resources under industrial capitalism leads to both environmental damage and heightening of capitalist competition. For example, in 19th century England farming was transformed by the increased use of chemical fertiliser – but the increasing yield of crops led to soil degradation. Meanwhile, imperialist wars were fought over tiny islands rich in guano (bird droppings) which could be used to make fertiliser.

However, this also has an effect on human well-being. The growth of industrial cities led to an urban environment fouled and polluted as much as a rural environment – especially for the working masses who flocked to these cities from the country. We can see a very similar process (the wearing out of the countryside under exploitation combined with the growth of tenement cities) in modern China. Foul, cramped, soulless working and living conditions are as much a product of capitalist alienation as the expropriation of surplus value. [Read more…]

Welcome to the May 2013 issue of Fightback, newspaper of Fightback (Aotearoa/NZ). Fightback is a socialist organisation with branches in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch.

Over Queen’s Birthday Weekend, the 31st of May to the 2nd of June, Fightback will be holding its annual public conference in Wellington. Turn to the back page or visit fightback.org.nz for more information.

In April, thousands rallied across Aotearoa against attacks on public schools. Fightback member Rebecca Broad covers the background of the dispute and argues the need for industrial action to defend and extend public education.

The campaign against further privatisation of power companies has also won some apparent victories lately, with the petition for a Citizens-Initiated Referendum achieving its goal of a non-binding referendum and with the Labour-Green opposition announcing a policy of bulk-buying power to reduce consumer prices. Fightback member Daphne Lawless argues the need for abolition of for-profit “State-Owned Enterprises,” introduced by the fourth Labour government, in favour of democratic community control.

In late March, racist group Right Wing Resistance were outnumbered by an anti-racist rally in Christchurch. Fightback member Byron Clark discusses the role of mainstream racism in fostering racist views.

In the April issue of Fightback, we covered the “peaceful revolution” in Iceland, (http://tinyurl.com/cu694hy) arguing while it has received little coverage in the capitalist press, it has conversely been exaggerated in some circles concerned with economic justice. Fightback reader Jessica Ward submitted an article for this issue, commending the inspirational nature of the struggle in Iceland. Fightback member Ian Anderson responds, contending that while the people of Iceland have won important concessions, international supporters have distorted the realities on the ground, the capitalist state in Iceland retains a monopoly on violence, and there are no “peaceful revolutions.”

On April 17th 2013, a bill passed its final reading in parliament extending marriage rights to same-sex couples in Aotearoa/NZ. This was the result of decades of struggle by supporters of queer rights. In an article reprinted from Scoop, Anne Russell discusses the limitations of this reform for dispossessed queers, while acknowledging that it can act as a spur to further action.
Sexism (like other forms of oppression) is deeply embedded in the daily lived realities of capitalism. Fightback supporter Robyn Kenealy discusses the role of everyday humour and irony in both reinforcing, and undermining sexism.

We also print two obituaries in this issue. Byron Clark explains the background behind celebrations of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s death; her devastating attacks on the working class, repression of resistance, and backing of violent counter-revolutions internationally. We also reprint a piece by MANA leader Hone Harawira, paying tribute to our comrade Mike Kyriazopolous, a unionist and Fightback member.

2013 May Fightback

Byron Clark

Members of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) including Nicky Hagar, have spent the past 15 months working though a cache of 2.5 million leaked files full of information on the people using off shore tax havens- foreign jurisdictions one can use to avoid paying tax on their income. According to ICIJ:

“The leaked files provide facts and figures, cash transfers, incorporation dates, links between companies and individuals that illustrate how offshore financial secrecy has spread aggressively around the globe, allowing the wealthy and the well-connected to dodge taxes and fuelling corruption and economic woes in rich and poor nations alike.”

The documents mostly concern the British Virgin Islands but the Cook Islands also feature prominently. This has put Cook Island authorities on the defensive, Jennifer Davis from the Cook Islands Financial Services Authority told One News:

“The media and information that we’ve seen come out … in relation to this matter seems to presume that anyone using the services or structures of the international finance centres are dodgy and that is simply not the case,”

Island nations often face limited development opportunities because of their small population and land area, so legislation giving them ‘tax haven’ status is seen as a method of attracting foreign capital. In 2002 The Economist described the main asset of these countries as the right to write the laws- something the Cook Islands did in the early 1980s, following lobbying from Australian and New Zealand business people. Today financial services are second only to tourism in the nation’s economy. [Read more…]

This event will be a discussion evening about socialism, alternative politics, and their relevance to Aotearoa today. Joel Cosgrove of Fightback will facilitate the discussion and present introductory info on what socialism is and why we believe it’s important.

The night will mostly take the form of a discussion so those with questions are welcome to voice their opinions. All are welcome :)

6pm, Monday May 13th
WEA, 59 Gloucester St, Christchurch

[Facebook event]

AE MARIKA is an article written every week by Hone Harawira, leader of the MANA Movement and Member of Parliament for Te Tai Tokerau. This tribute, to Fightback comrade Mike Kyriazopoloulous, was originally published on Mana.net.nz

On Saturday night I was privileged to host my first ever citizenship ceremony as a Member of Parliament. The ceremony was for a good friend of mine, Mike Kyriazopoulos and his wife Joanne. Mike is a mix of Greek and Jewish ancestry, and used to live and work in England where he met his wife Joanne.

Their citizenship application was finally approved a couple of weeks ago, and the ceremony was held at the Auckland Trades Hall in Auckland as part of a special tribute evening for Mike who is a committed socialist, a union activist, and chairman of the MANA branch of Te Raki Paewhenua.

Mike gave his oath of allegiance in Maori and followed that with his own personal vow to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the principles of international socialism.

The tribute part of the evening was because Mike has motor neurone disease which causes nerve cells to degenerate and muscles to waste away. Sufferers invariably end up unable to walk, speak, use their arms and hands, or hold up their head. It has no known cause and is invariably fatal. Mike is not expected to live much longer.

Tributes flowed in from union activists and socialist comrades from around the world and from the many gathered for the evening, and ended with my wife Hilda getting all these staunch socialists to hold hands and each say something nice about Mike as part of a big karakia for him.

Mike is not a man given to much emotion, and his speech was one urging everyone to have clear purpose and a strong commitment to the future.

A sad occasion but a great celebration nonetheless.

And then on the Sunday I was out at Piringatahi Marae in West Harbour where the body of another good friend, Wiremu Hamahona (Samson) was lying in state.

Wiremu is from Pawarenga but born and raised in Auckland. His family had gracefully agreed to my request that his body be released from the funeral home so that he could spend his last night with us, and MANA activists and friends and whanau came from far and wide to pay their final respects to a man who had been the backbone of MANA Waitakere for the past couple of years.

Wiremu was a complex guy – very intense, very loyal and totally committed.

He was training to be a teacher and some of his teacher mates came to farewell their friend. But to most of us, Wiremu was the guy who took charge of putting up my billboards right across Waitakere during my by-election in 2011 and the general election later that year, and him and his boy Davian would often be out all hours of the night in the cold and the rain, repairing billboards, refacing the defacing, “removing” obstacles, and making sure that regardless of how little money we had, MANA’s presence would be as strong as everyone else’s.

Wiremu once told one of the brothers that he wasn’t much into politics, but that MANA gave him heart and purpose and a reason to live. I’m glad that we were all there for him on his last night – to share the many hilarious stories that gave context to his life and hopefully gave warmth to his mum.

By his will, Wiremu was cremated and his ashes remain with his family.

Wiremu was like the sun. Regardless of how bad yesterday went, you always know that he would be there to warm your soul tomorrow. Haere e te rangatira, haere.